Eisner Testifies About Board Vote

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner testified Thursday that he sought to have directors add his wife to the company's board if he died or became unable to run the entertainment firm.

Lawyers for Disney shareholders suing to recover ex-President Michael Ovitz's $140 million severance for the company pointed to Eisner's request at a September 1996 board meeting to buttress claims that directors deferred too much to the chief executive on personnel matters.

The board "expressed unanimous agreement" that it would be appropriate for Jane Eisner to join the board in the event of her husband's "death or disability," according to minutes of the board meeting introduced into evidence in the trial of the investors' suit in Chancery Court in Georgetown, Del.